00:10:52 · Mehul Nariyawala
[00:10:52] S8: This is also a time when Microsoft Kinect was very popular and it had come out and Nintendo v was very popular. So part of the thesis was whenever people do gestures, they turn your finger or hand into a mouse. That's a point and click metaphor we invented. That's not intuitive. So the whole idea was if you wanna mute a TV, why can't you just shush it? So that was the insight. And when we launched this app to allow users to control iTunes, Spotify, YouTube, Netflix using Mac, it was number one app in 73 different countries worldwide on a Mac app store for about three months. We had altogether 77,000,000 gestures performed. So technology wise, it was really great. But we were also part of Y Combinator back then with Flutter. And the entire time we were there, Paul Graham was still working at Y Combinator actively, and he would just come in to us and look at us and says, I know you guys. You guys are a technology looking for a problem to solve. Have you found one yet? And he would repeat that over and over again. And initially, it was a very hard feedback to take. But over time, we realized that, hey, no one wakes up in the morning and says, today, I'm gonna buy gestures. That that as a product is in there. It's a really nice feature. It's a really nice technology, but it's not necessarily a product. And that's where it being part of Google or Apple or Samsung or some other platform made more sense. And luckily for us
00:12:01 · S0, S1, S2, S3, S4, S5
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00:12:59 · S5, S6, S10
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00:14:00 · Mehul Nariyawala
[00:14:00] S8: Apple and Google were both interested in acquisition, and we ended up getting acquired by Google. I feel like we were honestly very, very naive the first time. Acquisition definitely allow us to feel like we can build anything the technology part of it got right. But we took a year, at least a year... First year just analyzing what we got wrong. And one of them was this realization that, hey, no one wakes up in the morning, which is we we weren't solving a real problem. It was really, really cool technology, but it wasn't a problem. Number two, as Navneet mentioned, hardware, we only solved the problem one thing. So because we were using cameras inside your MacBook, we didn't have access to frame rates per second. We didn't have access to auto exposure or or autofocus. So that means you're building an algorithm for an eye that is waivered, and that didn't make sense. So we felt like we built a half solution. If you really wanna go solve a problem, we have to do hardware as well as software because product can't be limited arbitrarily by, oh, it's software or it's only hardware. That understanding was the reason why we ended up at Nest to learn how to do hardware. So it was very deliberate move on both of our part. And that was really the mindset that, like, solve a problem. Number two, build a product, and make sure there is a clear cut revenue model on day one, so that when you go start a company again, these are all problems that you're not thinking about after the fact. How do I start up is definitely not for the weak hearted. It takes time. But if you are passionate about the problem and if you want to solve it, absolutely. The best way to say this is if you look at the top technology companies today from SpaceX to Tesla to NVIDIA, these are all truly dollar companies, and these are all hardware. They're actually very, very hard to beat. So if you look at the Nasdaq or stock market and look at the top technology valued company, I think out of, like, top five, four are hardware startups. So, yes, hardware startups are hard, but if you can build something amazing, then you can really build an extremely valuable.
00:15:47 · Navneet Dalal
[00:15:47] S9: I'll also add that you gotta be a lot more patient and, ask the three y's in a row, like, you know, why x y z thing is done in that specific manner. This is really the fundamental reason why it needs to happen that way. Another key piece is in a hardware, at least to our perspective, is because startups are inherently risky. You want to reduce your risk as quickly as you can. You can use the same metaphor like, hey. What part is the most risky part in it? And can they answer or find a solution to that most risky part as soon as you can? And at least in Valley, it doesn't feel like that, but most of us think that, oh, building technology is too risky. That is indeed risky, but at least as a team or founders, you control it. We tend to think the most risky part is the market risk. Is there a market? Is there a customers who are really interested in buying the product or not? At the scale, you need to sell it to be a profitable business because without profitability, your business will die and along with it all the dreams and aspirations of the future work. If you have a
00:16:48 · Mehul Nariyawala, Navneet Dalal, S2, S3
[00:16:48] S8: problem and if you can solve it just using software, then absolutely just solve it using it. There is no reason to do hardware. The only reason to do hardware, it's really a problem you can't solve without software. So if you're trying to build self driving cars, then you're gonna have to deal with some sort of hardware. You can't just say, hey. I'm gonna build a software and not worry about sensors. And then this really the... Which is what is the problem you wanna solve? And that's where it boils down. [00:17:10] S9: And when we started working on Matic, like, you know, we very distinctively recall that we need to pause on thinking through this thing, and we need to think through what's the future. Right after we build this thing, what's next? And that's when it dawned on us that actually what we're really building is autonomous solutions. So our mission is to enable people, save time, and energy through truly autonomous robots. So we see there are so many things we can automate by just working on the robotics, machine learning, and computer vision. Ad[00:17:57] S2: Sam's Club is the club for every holiday club. Guess who's joining the club this season? Walmart Plus. Yep. Sam's Club Plus membership now comes with Walmart Plus at no extra cost. Two memberships, one great price. Just a $120 Ad[00:18:09] S3: a year can save Ad[00:18:10] S2: you time and over $700. Wanna get in on a membership duo of the century? Visit sam'sclub.com. Come join us. Sam's Club.